RPG 'Shroud of the Avatar' has a free trial going again

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Quotelike not being able to trade with other players

Note that players with full accounts can trade things to free trial players, you just can't give them anything back.

I started downloading it. While it did, I checked to see how much the full game would cost. $40. Okay, fine.

Then I saw a shop with loads and loads of stuff, like home decorations for $10 - $100. And a boat for $300. Then I googled a bit and found this Eurogamer article about the real-money housing market and yeah... I aborted the download.

This is not really something I want to be part of. Hell, I could just play EVE Online if I wanted to live in a libertarian hellscape.

Quoting: DrMcCoyI started downloading it. While it did, I checked to see how much the full game would cost. $40. Okay, fine.

Then I saw a shop with loads and loads of stuff, like home decorations for $10 - $100. And a boat for $300. Then I googled a bit and found this Eurogamer article about the real-money housing market and yeah... I aborted the download.

This is not really something I want to be part of. Hell, I could just play EVE Online if I wanted to live in a libertarian hellscape.

I've backed this game very early on, when it wasn't clear how it would become. What you describe drove me quite off a bit too. But since I love to play this kind of game as crafter, I'll very likely give it a shot anyway.

Depends on where they go from there, it could become pay2win. Not going there.

heh finally I have the bandwidth so this time I try this out...

Quoting: DrMcCoyThen I saw a shop with loads and loads of stuff, like home decorations for $10 - $100. And a boat for $300. Then I googled a bit and found this Eurogamer article about the real-money housing market and yeah... I aborted the download.

You don't need to buy any of that stuff to play the game, but this is a very common sentiment.

Quoting: wintermuteYou don't need to buy any of that stuff to play the game

That's not really the point, though. I just don't want to be a part of a game where there is a social class of have and have-nots decided upon how much real world money they put in the game. I already have that, right here, in the real world [1].

[1] And people who know of my political leanings know that I'm not exactly happy about that in the real world either :P

I don't want a game where there's 10k gold tickets for raffles for lots to build a house in, where you're surrounded by people who pop in to spend $5 to get the "rare" digital item of the month, so they can flip it for more real-world money half a year later (likely to some other person with more money than sense, or maybe with a hoarding disorder), where everything is only about the $$$.

I mean, if you want that kind of game, okay, but yeah, not for me.

You know what would be refreshing? Everybody gets a house. Period. Play the mission, you get more than enough in-game money to buy improvements and decorative items and such during normal play. No farming required. No real-world money required. No real-world money allowed.


Last edited by DrMcCoy on 14 August 2017 at 5:28 pm UTC

the marketplace, is it for customization or pay to win?

tried it (again) ... last time it was running OK, but I was little confused what to do in the game.. where to go, what are the quests etc. so now that it came to free trial again decided to give it another go and not care about that and just explore around. but, turns out the performance it horrible! loading times were forever, and once I got into town everything was crawling.. managed to walk around like 10 minutes and then closed it.

I might try again, lower the settings to minimum and see if it runs any better, but this is quite a shock concidering it used to run ok..

it's a shame. I'm a huge Ultima fan.. played the first one on my Commodore c64, and still occasionally I like to play the them through new engines like nuvie and exult etc..

.b

Quoting: DrMcCoyI mean, if you want that kind of game, okay, but yeah, not for me.

While I have put quite a lot of money into it, my experience is that it is not that sort of game. There are RMT oriented backers but most people who donate money to the telethons, while they appreciate the free stuff, are just keen to support the game and its continued development. The players who have put the most hours in tend to have the best stuff because they're the ones that get more of the rare in-game items which are valuable to other players.

Quoting: DrMcCoyYou know what would be refreshing? Everybody gets a house. Period.

While they're fun to decorate, houses are not necessary to play the game. If you want to get involved in property without spending real money it is possible now to rent rooms, deeds are available for in-game gold from other players or you can buy the in-game lottery tickets, there are craftable houses.

Quoting: DrMcCoyPlay the mission, you get more than enough in-game money to buy improvements and decorative items and such during normal play. No farming required. No real-world money required.

If you play through the entire story you will receive a number of powerful items which can only be gained through doing the quests, culminating in the Shroud of the Avatar itself.

Quoting: DrMcCoyNo real-world money allowed.

The ship has sailed on that one, and I do understand that the game's embracing of RMT has tarnished the whole thing for you (and others). It's just that within the game I do not see the classes of 'have and have-nots' based on amount spent that you mention.

Quoting: seventhe marketplace, is it for customization or pay to win?

Everything in the add-on store is cosmetic apart from (arguably) the COTOs. Most of it is just fancier versions of things that are craftable in-game. The COTOs can be exchanged with other players in-game for in-game gold and I think some people would consider that P2W, though IMX similar currency exchanges are possible in other MMOs.

Quoting: tofuheadI might try again, lower the settings to minimum and see if it runs any better, but this is quite a shock concidering it used to run ok..

There was a lot of optimisation work done recently though that has yet to improve the first load time much. My experience is that if you have limited memory (my laptop has only 8GB and an integrated GPU) load times are actually slower since the 'optimisation' though framerates have improved. There are also some memory leaks in there which make the game progressively slower the longer you've had it running, especially if you're frequently switching scenes. One thing you can try is the Vulkan renderer, add -force-vulkan when launching from the shell, may help, may not.

I think I'll try it and see how it runs. The market sounds a little concerning but it depends on how much of a hindrance that really is. If it's just a matter of principle, I can probably just ignore the market.